This two-room house existed by 1920 and was most likely built by the Vails for families working on the Empire Ranch. Dusty Vail Ingram, who grew up on the Empire, recalled that the Estrada family lived here in 1924, and that one of her favorite playmates was the Estradas’ oldest son, Mike. In 1927 Mariano Ferra, his wife, and granddaughter Eva moved into the house. Mariano had first worked as a cowboy for the Vails in the Rosemount area of the Empire and later worked at ranch headquarters cutting and hauling wood. After the Boices purchased the Empire in 1929, they allowed Eva’s grandparents to remain in the house. At age 13, Eva began helping Mary Boice with her children, Bob and Pancho. Eva later married Empire Ranch cowboy Dick Jimenez, who worked for Frank Boice from 1933 to 1945. Dusty remembered playing marbles, hide-and-seek, and other games with Mike Estrada, and remembered Rita rolling tobacco for Bartolo. Built of adobe bricks laid in a shallow trench with no foundation, and originally roofed without gutters, the house later suffered erosion and wall deterioration after it was abandoned. In the summer of 2000, professionals and volunteers replaced deteriorated bricks and stabilized the walls. Adobe was the most common building material in the Southwest in the 1800s because it was made from readily available soil and organic materials, and adobe houses stayed cool in summer and warm in winter. The house remains an important architectural component of the Historic Empire Ranch Headquarters, and complete restoration is a long-term goal of the Bureau of Land Management and the Empire Ranch Foundation.